One of the highlights of the week was getting the results of our municipal elections and feeling energized and happy as opposed to depressed. So yay for that. It was also neat to see how invested the kids were in the whole process (mind you, one of my son’s friend’s fathers was running for office, so he had a personal interest as well) which bodes well for their future civic engagement, I think. Whenever we talk about stuff like this, it always surprises me (in a good way) to see how opinionated and outspoken my kids are. I really love having opinionated kids. First and foremost, because they make really interesting and engaging people. I feel like my goal now, as a parent, is to nurture their critical thinking skills and their confidence in those skills, along with their intellectual curiosity and elasticity.
One of the lowlights of the week was forgetting a dear friend’s birthday. Making someone (especially a friend) feel unvalued is one of my biggest anxieties/fears – something I obsess about constantly in all my social interactions – and it feels awful when it actually happens. I am notoriously terrible for remembering dates (and names) and while I know why that is (cough, neurodivergent brain, cough), it doesn’t change the fact that I’m responsible for the unintended consequences. This was a painful (for both of us) reminder of that. [I apologized to my friend and we talked it out.]
I am nearing the finish line on the first draft of my current WIP, aka book #5. Honestly, with everything else going on in my life right now, I probably should have shelved this project till next year to give myself some breathing space … but I didn’t, and here we are. I pushed hard to get the first draft done in record time (it will need a LOT of work in revisions, lol) so I could wrap it up before November. Next week, I am expecting a couple of important developments vis-à-vis the publication process for A Party to Murder, so I will be switching gears and going hard into self-pub mode. I’ve got a draft of my first mailing list newsletter ready to go, which will include some fun updates.
Whenever I could steal a moment (hah!), I have also been prepping posts for the blog, diving into some heavier / more philosophical topics. Mostly, so far, I have a running list of ideas in my Notes app. But, hey, we are not in danger of running out of things to talk about here, that’s for sure. Once I clear up some room in my schedule, I’ll start putting pen to paper.
I had a moment of mini-epiphany this week, where I was able to clarify and reaffirm my purpose (aka what gives me meaning) and that has given me a boost of emotional/mental/creative energy that I’m excited to start putting to use.
So I’m leaving this week on a positive note, with lessons learned and new perspective gained, and hoping to bring that same vibe to what’s coming next.
Have a great weekend!